United Domains
United Domains is an ICANN accredited domain name registrar. United Domains has over ten years of expertise in domain name registration, offering over 170 top-level domains worldwide. United Domains support over 1.4 million domain names for more than 250,000 clients, including Fortune Global 500 companies such as Vodafone, Lufthansa, and Siemens.[1]
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| Type: | Public |
| Industry: | Domain Registrar |
| Founded: | 2000 |
| Founder(s): | Florian Huber Markus Eggensperger Alexander Helm |
| Headquarters: | Starnberg |
| Country: | Germany |
| Products: | NewDomains.org Conference |
| Employees: | 70 |
| Website: | united-domains.de uniteddomains.com |
| Twitter: |  @UnitedDomainsUS
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| Key People | |
| Florian Huber, CEO Markus Eggensperger, Legal Council | |
United Domains is a silver sponsor at ICANN Silicon Valley[2] and ICANN Singapore.[3]
United Domains has also sponsored the .nxt conference on new gTLDs.[4] It also hosted its own conference on new TLDs in September, 2011, the NewDomains.org conference. Afilias was the top sponsor of the event, which was held in Munich, Germany, and timed to coincide with that city's famous Oktoberfest celebrations. It seems they have intentions to hold another similar conference in 2012.[5]
History
United Domains was founded in August 2000 by a young team of software developers, marketing and legal experts.[6] Florian Huber, Markus Eggensperger and Alexander Helm are the founders of the company.[7]
In 2008, United Domains was purchased by United Internet for 34 million Euros. The founders of the company, Florian Huber, Markus Eggensperger and Alexander Helm still hold 15% share in the company even after the sale.[8]
Board
Board Members: Florian Huber (Chairman), Alexander Helm, Markus Eggensperger
Supervisory Board: Norbert Lang (Chairman), Dr. Oliver Mauss, Juergen Mayer[9]
Business
United Domains Network includes:
- USA United Domains http://www.uniteddomains.com
- namecheck.com http://www.namecheck.com/
- newdomains.org http://www.newdomains.org/
- domain-recht.de http://www.domain-recht.de/
- dopoly.de http://www.dopoly.de/
NameCheck.com was launched officially in 2011.[10]
Services
United Domains helps customers search and register domains. United Domains also maintains a Domain Trading Exchange which helps users trade the domains already taken. One can either buy, sell or lease through the Domain Trading Exchange.
United Domains also provides the feature of Domain Portfolio which enables administration and configuration of all domains belonging to a company or a private individual regardless of where the domains are registered. This is like a control center for the customer.
Controversy
Starting March, 2011, United Domains has also started the pre-registration of the new TLDs such as .sfo, .berlin, .nyc, .web, .eco, .shop, .gay, .med, .xxx, .hotel, .film, .music, which seem likely to be introduced by ICANN in 2012.[11] This was generally received as misleading and unethical, given that no new TLDs had been applied for, accepted, or delegated yet. However, its "sale" of such domains is not complete, given that they are not charging or taking credit card information at this point. It seems it is a strategy mainly built around preparing and attracting customers, though some registrars in the industry see it as foul-play that confuses customers.[12]